


Constellations

by tinylilremus



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Implied/Referenced Torture, In a Nightmare, Nightmares, Spoilers for Episode 45, but it's mostly warm and cuddly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 06:26:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17075087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tinylilremus/pseuds/tinylilremus
Summary: Based on the prompt "Caleb has a bad dream and Jester comforts him or it can be the other way around. Whichever you prefer."Jester has nightmares about being abandoned – Caleb makes her feel less alone.





	Constellations

The cavern is in chaos. It seems that wherever she looks is just fire and ice, she has no idea where the rest of the Nein are and there’s a huge monster sneering down at her, as if it can sense how alone and afraid she really is. In desperation, she screams out to the Traveller to help her, but her cry is met with heavy silence. It presses in on her from all sides, suffocating her and darkening her vision, until she opens her eyes again. This time she’s in a cell. Her hands are bound, and when she tries to scream, she realises her mouth is gagged. Beyond the bars, Lorenzo is leering at her, whip in hand, ready to do what it takes to break her. In an instant, she knows she’s never going to see the stars or the Nein or her mama again. Glancing around her cell panicked in search of Fjord or Yasha, she realises she’s alone once more and that she’ll have to hold off the horrors Lorenzo has in store for her without them. As the fear rises in her chest, she screams again – this time loud enough to pierce through the layers of cloth covering her mouth. She’s shaking violently, but it feels strange, almost as if it’s not her body causing it. Whatever it is feels warm and familiar and she leans into it as much as she can, praying it’s something that can help her.

Jester wakes with a jolt. There’s a hand on her shoulder and as she starts blinking the sleep from her eyes, she realises that it’s Caleb watching her with an expression midway between concern and fear.

“Jester, are you okay?” he asks. “You were crying out in your sleep and I wasn’t sure what else I could do but wake you. Was it a bad dream?”

“Yeah,” she says, trying to steady her breath, but it stutters and she finds she’s unable to quell the emotions that overtake her. Enormous sobs begin to wrack her body and now that it’s started she’s not sure how to stop.

“Oh, hey now, it’s going to be alright,” says Caleb, beginning to rub the hand on her shoulder in soothing circles. “It’s finished now and you’re back with us in the safe bubble. Nothing’s going to hurt you while you’re in here with all of us.”

Jester nods and reaches out to clutch onto Caleb a bit tighter, forgetting he’s not always the most comfortable with physical contact. She begins to pull away again as she realises how forward she was, but to her surprise, Caleb pulls her closer and just lets her cry into his chest for the longest time. It doesn’t do anything to staunch the flow of her tears, but with Caleb’s warm and assuring presence, the events of the dream seem farther away. She suddenly feels foolish – like she did at five years old when Bluud found her crying in one of the hallways of the Lavish Chateau when she went looking for her mother after a nightmare, not realising she was with a client at the time. She shouldn’t be crying about a bad dream really; they face far worse things on their journeys. She can’t start falling apart at something that’s all in her head.

“Sorry for crying,” she sniffs. “I know it’s stupid.”

“It’s not stupid,” Caleb reassures her. “It’s a normal way to process something that scares you. Better to let it all out when there’s an outlet than to keep it all bottled in where it can do more damage. When you’re ready to talk about it, and if you want to talk about it, I’m right here. Otherwise, feel free to cry on me as long as you need to. It’s my watch so I will be up for a while still.”

It seems more difficult here, with Caleb’s heart beating against her forehead and her arms pinned under his, to remember the empty abandonment from her dream, but it still nags persistently – not willing to allow Jester her peace yet. She cries for a while longer until eventually her eyes ache so much that she can barely open them anymore.

“I think I just really miss my mama sometimes,” says Jester, emotionally wrought and physically exhausted.

“Me too,” says Caleb, and there’s so much sadness and regret in his words that Jester has to look up at him to see what his eyes are saying. His face immediately forms into a soft – if perhaps slightly put-on – smile. “No matter, that’s a story for another day. You need to get some rest so that you’re running at full capacity again tomorrow. Do you want me to stay nearby while you sleep?”

She feels like she should say no, that she doesn’t need Caleb to watch her like a child, but there’s something inexplicably comforting about being near to him. So instead, she finds herself asking the opposite.

“Could you hold me for a bit longer?” she asks. “It’s okay if you find it weird and you’d rather not, but I just… I really don’t want to be alone.”

She expects him to say no, but to her surprise he pulls her close once more so that her back is against his chest and throws his coat over the two of them.

“Goodnight, Jester,” he says, pressing a small kiss to the top of her head. “Only the sweetest dreams.”

“Thank you, Caleb.” She settles back and falls asleep contemplating the stars shining through the top of the bubble and how they remind her of the freckles on the arms wrapped around her. Her sleep for the rest of the night is dreamless, and when she wakes up on her side a few hours later, with the soft morning sun making the clearing around them glow, the pale hand still tangled with hers is covered in constellations.

**Author's Note:**

> I HAD SO MANY FEELINGS AFTER THAT LAST EPISODE Y'ALL.


End file.
